Sound Cards making a buzz sound.

[Finnkc]

Ok well I was hooking up my sound card the other day to my Home stereo system, and I got this buzzzz <hum> sound from the speakers ... I am almost 100% sure it's not the sound system as I play DVDs and CDs all the time on the system and no noise at all.

The sound card is integrated with the mobo ... the drivers mark it as a AC''97 codec
So I looked over my sound card ... drivers are good, looked over the case and everything seems fine. Checked the RCAs ... they are fine too. So I hook it back up and I still get the hummmm. Sounds like a ground source hummm (if you know anything about stereos).

So I ok lets install another sound card ... grabbed my spare Creative SB live Platinum 5.1 Card PCI (6 year old card) and plugged it in and installed the drivers ... and still again I get this hummm from the speakers. I know the sound card is good because I used this card for years with this same amp and it never gave me issues.

So I am now thinking that I have a bad ground on the PC... is this possible? What can I check? I was thinking of putting a multi meter on the case and see if I get any voltage readings.

anyone had this before?

thanks,

 

[johnjkr1]

This is a common problem when hooking up a PC to a home stereo....there is a simple solution...but I forgot what it was when I had the problem. I think they make some type of inverter or converter at radio shack that solves the problem...it has been too long for me to remember but hopefully this might "jog" someone else's memory.

 

[Finnkc]

anyone know?

 

[johnjkr1]

up to the top! Someone remember what its called?

 

[vietofmars]

http://www.google.com/search?q=GROUND+LOOP+ISOLATOR&sourceid=mozilla-search&start=0&start=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

 

[johnjkr1]

GROUND LOOP!!! THAT"S IT! Your brilliant, I could not remember that for the life of me.

 

[Finnkc]

ah ok sweet I have one in my car system ... I know the sound but I wasn't sure if that was it ... thanks guys.